The changes will involve opening a new unit responsible for settling taxpayers with annual revenues exceeding EUR 50 million. This means the establishment of KWUS – the National Specialized Tax Office.
The current system comprises 20 branches of specialized tax offices, located in all provincial capitals. They serve 97,000 taxpayers, of whom 53,000 are active taxpayers. From January 1, 2016, there will be 19 Specialized Tax Offices and one KWUS, which will replace the First Mazovian Tax Office.
What is the reason for the changes? According to observations by the Ministry of Finance, the current division is not effective, either from the perspective of the entities served or that of the budget. A tangible example is the regulations concerning businesses established by a person from outside Poland, which are automatically assigned to a Specialized Tax Office regardless of the scale of their operations. Both the administrative division and the criteria used to define taxpayer categories are to be changed. In the case of Specialized Tax Offices, the taxpayer’s net revenue, rather than their status, will be taken into account. KWUS will dedicate its services to Poland’s most significant taxpayers, whose revenue exceeds EUR 50 million. According to analyses, as many as 3,800 entities meet such high revenue criteria. They are mainly banks, insurance companies and pension funds. Under the new system, state hospitals and public universities will be exceptions—even if they meet the revenue requirements, they will continue to be served by Specialized Tax Offices.
The changes may prove challenging for KWUS officials. Their work will focus on serving the largest economic entities, which may be considerably more demanding than settling “average” taxpayers. An additional difficulty concerns summonses issued to taxpayers from outside Warsaw. Under the regulations, “a person summoned is required to appear in person only in the area of the province in which they reside or stay.” Nevertheless, the transformation awaiting the system in 2016 will enable the creation of a new taxpayer service model and ensure uniformity in the application of tax law and the issuing of rulings. As Jacek Kapica (Undersecretary of State at the Ministry of Finance and Head of the Customs Service) states, the transformation process is intended to be a gesture toward the target group. A compliance policy—ensuring correct taxation—and a dialogue-based formula will be applied; therefore, the new office will not have an enforcement body.